Score one for the Buckeyes.
Rayma the orangutan pulled a switcheroo worthy of the craziest National Signing Day ceremonies Friday afternoon in Phoenix.
The orangutan has something of a reputation around Arizona as a sporting savant.
She has picked the winners of the last two Super Bowls correctly, and Friday, she weighed in on the 2019 Fiesta Bowl.
One of the zoo’s other orangutans correctly picked Air Force to win Friday night’s Cheezit Bowl.
Rayma’s picks are all carefully considered, as you can see in the video below. Rayma closely examines tee shirts bearing the logos of Clemson and Ohio State.
Then, she takes a moment to consider aspects like the Buckeyes ability to run the ball against Clemson’s defensive front against the Tigers’ ability to pressure Justin Fields.
Then, she chooses a winner by putting on that team’s shirt.
Friday at the Phoenix Zoo, Rayma immediately went for the Clemson shirt and seemed to be leaning toward the Tigers.
But Rayma is not only a sporting expert. She’s also quite a showman. Working the crowd like a master, she dragged out the drama while carefully weighing the possible impact of special teams on the field position battle.
And in the end, she put on the Ohio State shirt.
You might be wondering, “What kind of idiot cares what someone puts over their head to signify their pick for a single game? Especially if that person’s results suggest that they’re barely more predictive than a coin flip?”
It’s a fair question, and one that might leave one wondering whether this entire enterprise might not simply be an enormous waste of everyone’s time.
Lee Corso went 37-34 in his headgear predictions on College Gameday between 2015 and 2018.
